


are you free?

by diazsbuckaroo



Category: 9-1-1 (TV)
Genre: Bisexual Evan "Buck" Buckley, Buddie fluff, Dating, Evan "Buck" Buckley & Josh Russo Friendship, Feelings Realization, Firefighter Eddie Diaz (9-1-1 TV), Fluff without Plot, Insecure Evan "Buck" Buckley, M/M, buddie, cute fluff, josh and buck date!, mention of maddie
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-10
Updated: 2021-03-10
Packaged: 2021-03-16 17:55:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,132
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29953713
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/diazsbuckaroo/pseuds/diazsbuckaroo
Summary: buck and josh are on a date......not for long. :)
Relationships: Evan "Buck" Buckley & Eddie Diaz (9-1-1 TV), Evan "Buck" Buckley & Josh Russo
Kudos: 34





	are you free?

**Author's Note:**

> hope y’all enjoy :)!!!

for the first time in...... _nearly 2 years_ ..  buck sits at a fancy, romantically dim lit restaurant filled with men in tuxes and women in dresses, expensive wine, and outrageous pricey meals, but he figured for his first day back out in the dating world he’d go all out. he even dry-cleaned his tux and bought new hair gel specially formulated for curly hair so, it was pretty serious. 

especially in part that it’s his first date with a guy. ever. and he already knows the guy. 

he’s a bit sweaty as his sits alone at a table made for two, staring at a empty chair that’s awaiting his date. he takes out his phone for a minute to check if there’s been any texts and to see the time. guy’s about 15 minutes late, no texts or calls about cancelling. he feels the want to get super drunk on wine (no beer at a fancy-schmancy restaurant much to his dismay) already grow in him, because he’s  stressed , but if the guy shows up after all and buck’s toasted beyond the legal limit it’ll ruin everything. all the history, their friendship, and maddie’ll never let him live it down. 

“hey buck!” the voice of his date takes him out of his zoned out funk, watching the man older than him drape his jacket over the back of his chair and sit. “so so sorry I’m late, traffic out of the call center was insane and before that there was an overflow of calls about a pile up on the freeway so I had to stay back and help.” 

buck smiles, tucking his hands on his lap. “it’s no worries, really, I’m just glad you’re here.” 

he exhales from his nose, smiling back. “me too.” there’s a pause in the conversation flow until he perks up again. “you know, I gotta say I was bit nervous when maddie said she wanted to set me up. I haven’t dated since....well, since I was attacked, but when she said with _you_ , I was relieved.”

buck feels himself blush, another smile forming on his lips as he brushes his curls back off his face. “me too, I mean, I wasn’t attacked or anything horrible like you went through but I’m sure maddie’s told you about abby- and taylor kelly, and ali, and I’m sure you know about buck 1.0,” 

“buck 1.0?” he interrupts, chuckling. “sounds like there’s a story there.”

“oh many, many stories.” buck interjects, sipping a bit of his wine.

“well the night’s still young.” he holds his own wine glass up, as an intent to initiate a toast between him and buck. buck gently taps his glass to his date’s and the silence looms heavily all of a sudden.

josh russo is someone maddie considers to be her best friend, maybe even another brother. he was her teacher at the call center turned fast friend turned best friend, and maddie knows a lot more about what josh has been through personally, professionally, and dating wise than buck but yet she still insisted on setting them up, even after cracking her “ oh I like you way too much to set you up with my brother”  joke while playing poker a couple months back. he knows he can’t screw it up, make josh hate him and then turn on maddie somehow or make his own sister hate him for unintentionally hurting josh. 

—-

the night goes well, between talking about calls josh took and buck responded to with the 118, to personal events- bombing, tsunami, earthquake- the night went by fast. 

in conversation, eddie was brought up. josh has really never met eddie before but he knows of him just because of the jobs, yet he now knows how buck and him met, their first call together, pulling the grenade out of the guys leg together, the christmas elf thinking they were a couple, on and on and on. of course, that brings up christopher, and buck always has to brag about his son-that’s-really-not-his-son. 

“I don’t know if maddie told you but, I lost christopher in the tsunami. I mean, my best friend’s  child , in my care was gone and I-I panicked.” josh listened intently, buck figuring it’s like second nature to him because of his job. “but,” bucks voice soothes to calmer tones, a deep breath taken in, staring at the table for a minute then back up at josh. “he said he forgave me, that he-he trusted me with his son more than anyone.”

“that’s pretty major.” josh smiles.

“yeah, right?” from across the table josh studies buck’s eyes, his breaths, his...everything, when he talks about eddie. josh too takes a deep breath.

“buck, can I ask you something?” he strikes up and buck pauses his sip to answer with a nod. “are you into me? like can you see us...together?” buck feels like he’s been sucker punched.  oh god , he thought, feeling like a truth bomb was building inside him. buck knows josh deserves the truth and honesty, he knows josh has gotten the short end of the stick when it came to that in past relationships. his eyes divert to the sides, avoiding josh’s which somehow feels like lasers on him. “look I’m not mad or-or pissed, nothing like that trust me. I just need know. I think I got my answer.”

“josh,” buck sighs, finally able to stutter out complete thoughts. 

“the way you talk about eddie and his son, your body language when he’s mentioned and probably when he’s in the room with you. I can imagine. I think we both know who you should be sitting with right now.” josh starts to reach behind him to his coat, yet buck places a hand on his to grab his attention. 

“josh it’s not that I don’t like you, because I do very much. you’re a great person, lovely person actually, you’re a caring friend to my sister and to me, it’s just-“

“you don’t like me,  _like_ me. ”

“I’m so sorry, I wish I did.” buck grazes josh’s hand with his thumb softly. 

“no, buck,” he smiles. “don’t be sorry. I’m not gonna hate you because of how you feel. you like like eddie. I think you love him.” buck turns beet red so fast.

“thank you for being so cool about this all.” 

“you deserve to be with him.” he smiles, walking out the restaurant. buck bows his head, confused as to what he’s feeling. sad? yeah. happy? that too. 

alone once more after josh leaves, the urge in him grows stronger and stronger to call someone and talk. he’s already ordered food to go for them two, all he needed was a confirmation he could come over.

“hello?”

“eddie, hey. are you free?” 


End file.
